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Wasp (Ship)
Description The Wasp is a variant on the theme of the Dragonfly, built to suit the needs of lizard men. One of the first vessels designed and built with the lizard man in mind, the Wasp looks slapdash and poorly engineered. In fact, the Wasp performs adequately if not exceptionally. The lower decks of the central section are bowed outward and flooded for use by the lizard men, and as a storage area for their pets. The raised hump on the wasp's back provides high ground for the ship's main weapon turret, usually a heavy ballista. Crew Lizard men normally have a single captain and a shaman responsible for the splljamming helm (often with one or more apprentices serving as backup helmsmen). Beyond that, tasks are shared without official positions. The weapons teams usually consist of those lizard men closest to the weapons at the time of a battle. In battle the captain is usually stationed either on the foredeck or at the ballista turret, where he can lead by example, while the helm and charts are kept below the foredeck. While there are official 'crew quarters' aboard the ship, these are usually reserved for the captain and shaman; the rest of the crew generally bunks down in any available space. Many lizard man ships carry 'crew mascots' in the flooded cargo area. These mascots are often schools of fish, such as groupers or small sharks, and are sometimes used to feed the lizard men, or provide a convenient method of disposing of unneeded prisoners. Some ships carry largere creatures, such as octopi, squid, or crocodiles. Ship Uses Piracy: The chief use of the Wasp is as a pirate vessel, preying on un-armed or lightly-armed ships. It lacks a ram, but the forward deck makes an excellent boarding platform. The Wasp's size even allows it to land on larger ships. Free Adventuring: Many adventurers use the Wasp because it is easily purchased or captured from the lizard men. Despite its size, the Wasp is an impressive-looking ship when it comes to awing untraveled locals. Other Configurations Bee Class: This variant is a purely deep space craft used in areas where lizard men have an established off-planet base. The wasp's landing gear is removed and replaced with two additional turrets containing 2 more heavy ballistas. The Bee Class Wasp cannot land on land, although water landings are possible (if uncommon), and the ship's cargo capacity is reduced to 3 tons (removing the landing gear somewhat mitigates the reduction in cargo capacity that would usually be needed as a result of the additional weapons). Bumble Bee: This configuration is a massive variant of the Bee in which the legs and the ballista are jettisoned, and the hull itself deepened and widened to carry an additional 6 tons of cargo capacity. The 'pregnant' appearance of the Bumble Bee marks it as a trader's vessel and an easy target. In some regions Bee Class Wasps will be disguised as Bumble Bees (either by magic or false fronts) to attract would-be targets. Fleet-Footed Wasp: This evasion-minded variant of the Wasp is stripped, reducing AR to 8, but increasing MC to C. In addition, a medium jettison is added in the tail section, taking up 2 tons of cargo space.